Lewerke as Heisman Candidate?

Submitted by TheLastStraw on

MSU QB Brian Lewerke getting some pre-season hype as a Heisman candidate:

MICHIGAN STATE QB BRIAN LEWERKE, JUNIOR Lewerke will begin his second season as the Spartans’ starting QB in a favorable position to build up Heisman momentum. Not only does Michigan State look set to mount a challenge to Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State in arguably the toughest division in the Power 5 leagues (the Big Ten East), it brings back its top three receivers and four starters on the offensive line from the group that rebounded from a dismal 2016 season to win 10 games last fall. Lewerke’s output as a runner and passer could keep him in the Heisman mix, provided the Spartans make good on their preseason expectations by staying in the playoff hunt.

https://www.si.com/college-football/2018/05/17/heisman-trophy-odds-slee…

I honestly don't see it.

Last year MSU was 8-0 when Lewerke threw 35 or fewer passes. MSU was 1-3 when Lewerke threw 36 or more passes.

A Heisman candidate needs to be able to put his team on his shoulders. Anytime Lewerke had to put MSU on his shoulders, they lost.

WoodleyIsBeast

June 1st, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^

Lewerke is MSU's best QB after Cousins IMO

 

Scares me more than Connor Cook, Jeff Smoker, Brian Hoyer, etc....

 

That being said, I think he is in for a rough go this fall against this Michigan defense

saveferris

June 1st, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^

Last year MSU was 8-0 when Lewerke threw 35 or fewer passes. MSU was 1-3 when Lewerke threw 36 or more passes.

MSU was throwing more in the games that they lost because they were getting blown out and were going to the air to try and make up ground. They lost to ND by 20 and OSU by 45. The idea of Lewerke as a Heisman candidate is ludicrous.

goblue16

June 1st, 2018 at 1:24 PM ^

I mean the only way I could see him in the heisman conversation is if they win the division which I think they should be favored to do just that. However, if they lose a game or 2 or 3 it can’t be because of lewerke not able to drive them down the field or throwing a pick at a crucial point in the game. With that said he has no shot. I think we will upset MSU this season and I doubt he beats OSU. The rest of their schedule is manageable though

joeyb

June 1st, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^

Your hand-picked statistic shows that he tends to throw more in games they are losing rather than them losing games in which he happens to throws more.

CRISPed in the DIAG

June 1st, 2018 at 1:14 PM ^

And defenses on consisently winning teams often give up passing yards because, you know, they're playing ahead in the score and their opponents throw more often. This isn't difficult but announcers and coaching cliches don't help.

MSU will move the ball against bad teams because Lewerke can bail them out with his running. Good defenses (like ours) won't give him the same room. 

Sione For Prez

June 1st, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^

Using passing attempts is a weird way to determine if a QB is good or not. Of course he would have less attempts in games they win since they would be doing more clock control.

Hold This L

June 1st, 2018 at 12:48 PM ^

Is when the team needed Lewerke to help them out of a hole they dug themselves into, he didn't have the talent or drive to do so. Heisman winners are guys that step up when their team needs them and in the end, does enough for his team to win the game. 

Jimmyisgod

June 1st, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^

2700+ yards passing. 500+ yards rushing. 20+ TDs. On a top 15 and 10 win team. He as a sophomore last year, so yeah, some Heisman hype is expected. He also played in a few terrible weather games or he would have thrown for 3000 yards.

He’s young. He can really throw well in the run and has a decent arm. His team returns everyone. No surprise he’s getting some hype.

Catchafire

June 1st, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^

Let them get all the pre-season hype... they have earned it.  We will have something to say about that when we play them...

Not interested in playing a night game against them either. 

MGoStrength

June 1st, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^

While I don't think he was an elite QB last year, he did show potential and has the opportunity to improve going into his second year of starting.  He should have a decent o-line ahead of him and a good RB.  I'm not sold on their WRs, but they aren't terrible.  If he has an improved year this year I would say there is the potential for 2019, but right now I would not consider him a candidate.  I also don't expect MSU to win enough games to be a consideration.  I'd predict they are 9-3, but time will tell.  They don't have to play Wiscy in cross divisional and they don't have too difficult of a pre-conference schedule.  So, they should have a pretty clear path to 8-9 wins, but doubt they get by OSU, UM, or PSU (in State College).

JTrain

June 1st, 2018 at 12:46 PM ^

Kid is a baller. They have almost everyone returning. They will continue to evolve. Definitely worries about this game. Maybe more so than even OSU.

In a side note tho...he does run a lot. They will need to keep him healthy. If he gets hurt they may be fucked.

AZBlue

June 1st, 2018 at 3:26 PM ^

Important player on any team contending for the B1G this year. DeWeaver is gone and I was not very impressed by the RS Frosh Lombardi in what I saw of their Spring game. Lewerke “made a lot of chicken salad” out of what his OL and running game gave them last year.

JonnyHintz

June 1st, 2018 at 12:57 PM ^

The only times he passed for over 250 yards last year, he required over 50 attempts to do so. Even John O’Korn did better than that.

He completed 50% or fewer of his passes in four games last year.

Heisman candidate? Yeah....no.

Eng1980

June 1st, 2018 at 12:59 PM ^

Sure, we go undefeated and beat MSU by 24, maybe 24-0, and Brian LeWerke wins the Heisman.   I wonder if Michigan can best MSU by something like 45-0 and LeWerke could still win the Heisman.

I really don't care unless Shea Patterson or any other Wolverine is also in New York in December.

Go BLUE

Wishing everyone a weekend that exceeds all positive expectations.

TheLastStraw

June 1st, 2018 at 1:09 PM ^

Don't post positive analysis about a rival. Even if you go on to disagree with it, you will garner a lot of downvotes.



Just trying to generate on topic discussion... 

goblue16

June 1st, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^

Oh ya this blog will destroy you if you state facts that show OSU or MSU in any positive light. If you don’t believe me start a thread that lists the top 5 coaches in the big ten and watch the chaos. I’m just glad football season is right around the corner and basketball right after that

Bodogblog

June 1st, 2018 at 2:11 PM ^

This is reasonable.  You'd have to peg him as the second best QB in the B1G behind McSorley. 

MSU was 17th in Passing S&P last year.  But they couldn't run the ball at all.  Their OL was the flipside of Michigan - decent at pass blocking, horrendous at run blocking.  With LJ Scott returning and the OL bringing back some experience (though I don't believe the data shows OL returning starters is a good predictor of success), there's a good chance the run game improves.  If that happens there will be even more play action available.  



Lewerke's a good QB with good receivers.  A lot would need to go his way for this to happen, but this is true of any player.  Based on what's been proven on the field, he has a better opportunity than Patterson.  But I'm hoping Patterson is great. 

AZBlue

June 1st, 2018 at 3:16 PM ^

Is better outside of McSorley? We hope Shea will be and the OSU kid looked to be damn good in his short stint vs. M but I don’t see anybody else in the B1G better than Lewerke.



If MSU goes 11-1 and Lewerke looks good he will get Heisman chatter - I doubt Scott will be impressive enough to be the guy and someone from a team with that record is bound to get the hype. (FYI - I don’t see 11-1 happening but if it did...)



Best case for M this year is that Shea lives up to his potential. That potential is basically Brian Lewerke with probably a better arm and maybe better mobility. (Which is why he was a 5-Star and Lewerke was a 3.5-4 star)

BigBlue02

June 1st, 2018 at 4:04 PM ^

First off, everyone on this board has already said the OSU kid is better than Shea because of the second half of The Game last year, so that means he’s already better than Lewerke too.

But seriously, I don’t have to hope Shea will be better than Lewerke, he already is. He put up extremely similar numbers last year with a higher QB rating than Lewerke and he played in half the games.

SFBlue

June 1st, 2018 at 1:50 PM ^

Top 10 or 15 candidate, maybe. He’s deceptively mobile, has an accurate arm. The difficulties he faces are (1) does not play in an offense that is geared to put up large passing numbers and (2) a difficult schedule.



The disconnect is NOT that he is just not that good. He is.

funkywolve

June 1st, 2018 at 2:37 PM ^

It doesn't look that bad to me:

Utah St

@ Arizona St

@ Indiana

CMU

Northwestern

@ PSU

Michigan

Purdue

@ Maryland

OSU

@ Nebraska

Rutgers

 

They have a couple tough back to back games (@ PSU, Michigan and OSU, @ Nebraska) but the rest of the schedule doesn't look that difficult.

readyourguard

June 1st, 2018 at 1:54 PM ^

Lewerke is a decent QB that performs farily well in a system that somehow makes no-name players into pretty damn good receivers. They have perfected the back shoulder throw, which is tough to defend, even with the number 1 pass defense.

They just better pray they don't suffer injuries like we did last year. 

Perkis-Size Me

June 1st, 2018 at 2:28 PM ^

He's a good QB. Much better than anyone we had on our roster last season. But a Heisman candidate? For him to win college football would have to have an awfully down year. 

Don

June 1st, 2018 at 2:46 PM ^

while Lewerke comes up big in games against UM, OSU and PSU, he'll be a Heisman candidate, maybe even a finalist in NY.

If MSU goes 8-4 with losses to UM and OSU and PSU, he won't, regardless of how well he plays.

Swazi

June 1st, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^

He’s not even gonna be the best QB in the B1G. McSorely (and possibly Patterson and the OSU guy) will have better stats and ply this year.